


Jane Foster's Cats

by chewingonpearls (Reallife)



Series: Troperrific Rarepair Challenge [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Introspection, M/M, Prompt Fill, Rare Pair, Second Chances, doing it in secret, everyone is bi and beautiful, everyone is poly and nothing hurts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-17
Updated: 2017-03-17
Packaged: 2018-10-06 14:39:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10336820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reallife/pseuds/chewingonpearls
Summary: Darcy gave a happy hum as she sipped at her drink, “I saw your cats have both returned to the tower at the same time, am I going to finally see them brawl for your affections?”Oh if only she knew, but Darcy didn’t know, though how Jane had managed to keep it that way was beyond her. Darcy had been the person toliterallyshake Jane, point to both Loki and Bucky, calling her an oblivious idiot for not noticing the heart eyes. Even if it did come from two of the more emotionally constipated in the tower.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Artemis_Day](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Artemis_Day/gifts).



> Prompt from iamartemisday on Tumblr; Bucky Barnes/Loki/Jane Foster N; No one knows they are doing it.
> 
> Unbeta'd

Jane was jarred out of her equation caused daze by the sudden jostling of her desk and smell of coffee and caramel as Darcy sat down across from her, two drinks in hand.

“Gah, I can’t believe you got half the labs addicted to Vietnamese coffee, I swear I walked down the hall and half the nerds popped up like groundhogs at the smell.” Jane could only grin smugly as she took the drink that was slid across from her..

A visit from her friend on one of her few days free of classes was enough for the scientist to push her work to the side for the moment, “I’m just glad Stark got it added to the in house coffee shop, it’s easier than leaving the building and hustling to a busy coffee shop.” 

Darcy gave a happy hum as she sipped at her drink, “I saw your cats have both returned to the tower at the same time, am I going to finally see them brawl for your affections?”

Oh if only she knew, but Darcy didn’t know, though how Jane had managed to keep it that way was beyond her. Darcy had been the person to _literally_ shake Jane, point to both Loki and Bucky, calling her an oblivious idiot for not noticing the heart eyes. Even if it did come from two of the more emotionally constipated in the tower.

Her eyes skirted away from her friend and down to her drink before she responded, “One day they are going to hear you say that and you’ll have to explain, I can’t wait to see your face.”

Darcy just scoffed, “Easy peasy lemon squeezy, Bucky is the outdoors cat that is secretly loving but tries to act like he’s not and is just all tough.” Well, that was true. Bucky--both the Bucky she knew and the one from before--were softies at heart who tried to protect themselves with a tougher outer shell.

“And Loki?”

He was the one most cat like of the two without a doubt, “Oh, he’s the pretentious cat that likes to invade your privacy and knock shit off the table just to show they can, and likes to be. Like, on your face when you are trying to do stuff.”

They both laughed and Jane nodded, “You are right on both counts, color me impressed.” Darcy was giving her that look, the one that said she was getting serious and about to make Jane do something she didn’t want to do.

Like go out to a bar, or marathon Mad Max for the third time.

Or worse, talk about her feelings.

“And what about your _lover_?” She dropped her voice melodramatically, a level of silliness that she had never felt embarrassed about around Darcy.  
“Oh, Sif?” A look of contemplation crossed her face but she didn’t have a long respite--

“--Yes? Who else would I be asking about?”

A smirk crossed her features before she pointed to the glass wall that opened out into the outside hall, where both Bucky and Loki stood stiffly. They were standing just a few feet apart while trying to act like the other didn’t exist, to Darcy’s endless amusement. 

Darcy looked like the cat who got the canary and Jane just sighed, sometimes she wondered how she got here. Two scowling men on one side and a cheeky best friend on the other, while standing on top of a thinly veiled secret that felt like it would shatter any day.

No, that was a lie.

She knew the twisting trail that they had taken to get to this point, and in retrospect she could trace it in her mind even though at the time it was as much of a mystery to her as Asgard had once been.

It certainly started with Erik leaving to go back home and Darcy going back to school, leaving Jane working in the lab with only Tony and Bruce for company, and Helen whenever their paths crossed. But her and the boys were sometimes the worse sort of Science Enablers on themselves and while she adored Helen they worked in completely different fields, and therefore labs.

Then there was the slow realization that, though she still loved Thor and perhaps she always would, she didn’t _miss_ him when he was gone. Worried about him when they were fighting villains of course, but she worried about all of them. 

But she didn’t _miss_ him when he wasn’t near, and she didn’t feel elation at the thought of his return.

They parted on good enough terms that she still visited Asgard to study and visit the friends she had made there, a thing she was still grateful when the loneliness creeped in.

No one stopped her from standing in front of Loki’s cell and asking him _why_ , and how he slept at night knowing what he caused, no one stopped her from demanding to know who he thought he was under all that bravado.

But no one made her stay either, when he actually answered. Perhaps, like her, they weren’t really expecting honesty from the god of lies, and thought his words would have little impact on her.

Maybe she shouldn’t have. Maybe had she not sat there for hours and listened to him he wouldn’t be a _person_ to her now, instead of the more easy to handle far off entity to hate from a distance.

Except the damage was done, and she returned home with part of her left in Asgard.

Just like no one stopped her from visiting Loki, no one stopped the Winter Soldier from seeking refuge in her lab.

It would take three weeks before he told her why. That it was because Jane didn’t walk on eggshells around him, but when she was concerned she was direct and didn’t baby him because he had been Traumatized or scared because of what he had done.

Because he could hang around the lab for hours and no one bothered him there, he could hand her pencils, let her bounce ideas off him and stare at star charts. He could be useful without killing.

Darcy also adjusted to this on her visits without blinking twice, and quickly recruited him on the Make Sure Jane Eats and Sees The Sun Squad. Something he took to with glee, and gradually it wasn’t really The Soldier hanging out in her lab--it was Bucky Barnes. Steve didn’t like it, and even Natasha was wary. They told her to be careful, to not trust him or push him in anyway.

It didn’t stop her from kissing him, on a clear night when he demonstrated that he actually _listened_ when she blathered on by pointing out her favorite constellations, and his own along with the myths that went with them.

A few months later they let Loki assist the Avengers on a few missions, some sort of probationary agreement that she wasn’t privy to the details of. They circled around each other in her lab with thinly veiled threats and insults, like one was encroaching on the other’s territory.

Jane put a stop to that shit _real fast_ , this was her territory, thank you very fucking much, and she was neither of their’s.

People gave them odd looks, they worried about her. That after Thor left her (haha) she was seeking any affection she could, even the dangerous sort. So it seemed natural for them to gather in her apartment for movies rather than public spaces, because people were wrong. Wrong that she should fear them, wrong that she should distrust them, wrong that Loki would lie to her or that Bucky would hurt her.

At the time she was surprised that they started worrying about each other when on separate missions. Maybe she shouldn’t have been, a lot could change between two people in a year. 

Jane worried too of course, worried about her men who weren’t really her’s, who she had sharp tongue debates with and ball danced across the kitchen floor in socks and pjs. Who listened to her when she prattled on, who took care of her and let her take care of them. 

Hindsight was 20/20, and now the night when she rushed home because they had been _hurt_ , it didn’t matter that it wasn’t critical to find them embraced and shaking in her shower.

In any other situation, any other dynamic, they could have expected surprise from her, disgust perhaps or even jealousy.

But they knew her too well, and that's what she lo-- _valued_ about them, and she knew too well for there to be any fear of such things between them. 

So that is what led her here, the question was where would she go now.

**Author's Note:**

> So I don't think I've ever written Loki? I am sorry if this came out terrible, I know I paid the least amount of attention to him, mostly out of insecurity on my part. But I may actually write more of this, it was a fun challenge! I hope you like it.
> 
>  
> 
> Prompt me for your favorite Rare Pair + cliche trope on my tumblr! Guidelines can be found [Here](http://bagofgroceries.tumblr.com/post/158427988594/troperrific-rarepair-writing-challenge).


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